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soma_seeker

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Posts posted by soma_seeker

  6. Posted

    Hi people :)

     

    So, through a series of foolish acts I've found myself without a viable cubensis print for my microscopy work...  If anyone could help me out I'd greatly appreciate it.  I've sent them out for free in the past but am happy to pay as I unfortunately have nothing to trade.

     

    I would be particularly interested if someone has a recently prepared PESA print they are willing to sell! :D

     

    Cheers

  8. Posted · Edited by soma_seeker

    * PRINT NOW AVAILABLE FOR SALE/TRADE. PM ME :) *

    Hi all :)

     

    So I know this might be a long-shot, but I was wondering if anyone in the community might have a Psilocybe Galindoi (ATL7) print that they would be willing to sell me for my microscopy studies?

     

    I had one in the past, but after not needing it for the past 3 years it seems to have disappeared...

     

    Cheers!

  12. Posted

    Thanks :) I hadn't heard of that approach.  Would be much safer for me too since I have a gas oven (would avoid the risk of putting flammable oven/spawn bags in an oven that has a naked flame).

     

    I also have a digital thermometer with a wired probe.  Whatever approach I go for I was planning on having the probe in the centre of one of the containers of material. That way I can start my timer when the temp. reads 65 C.  What do you think?

  13. Posted · Edited by soma_seeker

    Nice. A good friend of mine did his PhD at Penn State.  I actually just spent the past year of mine in the US too.

     

    I'd thought that the oven might be a viable option, but then I thought that your standard kitchen oven might struggle to maintain a constant and precise temp. within that low a range... A lab oven however :) 

  15. Posted

    Fair enough, scrap that idea I guess.  It did just seem quite effective and easy, figured it would be worth it in the long run if I could pick one up for $100 or less...

    Which of these methods would the community recommend?

     

    1.  Heating water to temp and transferring to an esky

     

    2.  Heating water and sealed bags in a large pot over a gas stove with thermometer and close observation/flame adjustment

     

    Cheers

  16. Posted

    Hey people :)

    So I'm going to start working with horse poo for the first time.  What I'd really like is to find an electric turkey roaster to use for the pasteurisation of my substrate!  (like this one http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BELLA-13425-Turkey-Roaster-Oven-18-Quart-Stainless-Steel-/112055999234?hash=item1a170edb02:g:dngAAOSwzLlXhwa9 )

     

    The problem is I can't find them for sale ANYWHERE in Australia, and buying from the US doubles the price due to shipping :(  

     

    Has anyone looked into buying one of these or something similar before?

     

    Are there any significant alternatives I can look into?  I've used simpler hot water/bucket methods before when working with coir, but with poo I'd really like to be more precise...

     

    Cheers!

  20. Posted

    Hi there :)

     

    So I recently moved back to Australia and have found myself in the need P. cubensis spore prints (for microscopy purposes), and would be tremendously grateful if anyone could help me out!

     

    I don't really have anything to trade at the moment unfortunately.... but I've donated plenty of prints to others in the past and promise to pass on the favour in the future if anyone is willing to show me some generosity :)

     

    Thanks a lot guys!

    Peace

    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    Sorry guys, haven't been active for quite a while...

    In response to your question, yes the unit has been quite effective in maintaining a low contamination rate for the majority of my work. Let me explain, I've continued to have low rates of contamination from;

    1. All agar work. Germinating spores, strain selection, agar wedge to LC etc.

    2. Syringe prep

    3. Spawning colonised qrt jars to more qrt jars (I generally turn one into 8)

    The one area that I have recently had more issues with however is spawning colonised qrt jars to myc bags of sterile grain. Considering that the level of air exposure (and hence likelihood for contamination) is significantly higher when working with bags than jars I guess I shouldn't be suprised that the contam rate here is higher. However, initially I didn't seem to have a problem so maybe my technique has laxed (probably likely after my initial successes), or I just had a bad recent run.

    Regardless, I'm still happy with setup and don't feel the need to upgrade/change. If you don't play around with myc bags then my recent problems aren't even a potential issue for you, if you do, chances are you'll have better luck than my recent work :)

    Best of luck!

  23. Posted · Edited by soma_seeker

    Still keen to see some photos of your flow box endorfinder :)

    Just wanted to report that this design has proved very useful for mycobags. I use the flow to fill the bags with a full plume of sterile air, after which I inoc them via g2g, agar wedge or LC. I then seal them using an impulse sealer in the sterile air-flow.

    After preparing over 30 bags in this way I've had 2 or 3 contaminate with trichoderma. I'd obviously prefer 100% success, but I'm happy with 90% or better. Now that I have a reliable method for preparing mycobags (something which has always given me trouble in the past), I've all but given up preparing quart jars. My 23qt presto PC can hold 10 quart jars, or 4 mycobags with 3.5L of grain in each. This means that for each PC run I can prepare more than twice as much grain using mycobags rather than jars (based on the quart jars actually containing 650mL each).

    504107736-thumb_2013-04-02_11.11.56.jpg

    • Like 1

  25. Posted

    The question is whether a fan will create turbulent or laminar air flow. If it's turbulent it may not matter that you're on the other end of the stream, contaminants could still potentially cross onto what you're working on.

    I don't know either way and until I started looking things up just then I didn't know the meaning of laminar or paid much thought to whether or not streams of air directed at me from a fan could have eddies or be parallel streams.

    I think the easiest answer will be to see how many contaminants you get.

    Yep, and based on my uncontaminated stacks of agar cultures and the 20 jars I've prepared via g2g I think it is doing its job quite well :)

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